


The Other

by kcstories



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: adventdrabbles, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-09
Updated: 2007-12-09
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcstories/pseuds/kcstories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Harry could have opted for the usual Christmas Eve that year. He'd been invited to join the Weasleys at The Burrow for dinner, in spite of his ugly break-up with Ginny a few months previous..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other

**Author's Note:**

> Written for adventdrabbles, and for eaivalefay who requested this pairing and the prompt 'usual'.  
> Disclaimer: The Potterverse is JKR's, not mine. Written for fun, not profit.  
> Warnings: AU-ish.

Harry could have opted for the usual Christmas Eve that year. He'd been invited to join the Weasleys at The Burrow for dinner, in spite of his ugly break-up with Ginny a few months previous.

"You'll always be family," Molly Weasley kept insisting whenever they spoke.

Harry couldn't think of any reason to doubt the sincerity of her words, even though at the same time, her tone was always laced with sympathy as well, as though he were some poor little sod to be coddled and pitied.

He wasn't and he was growing tired of hearing implications to the contrary.

He'd defeated Voldemort.

If that victory didn't suffice to convince certain people that he was neither useless nor helpless, most likely nothing in the whole wide world ever would and Harry didn't intend to waste any more time or energy trying to prove himself.

Furthermore, he wasn't in the celebrating mood.

Christmas didn't mean much these days. It never had, if he were to be truly honest about the matter, except for during that short while when the Weasleys still felt like family to him, not the in-laws they'd never been and never would be in this lifetime. Dating Ginny had been a grave mistake on many levels.

Still, it was no use pondering on that any longer.

Besides, there was someone he needed to see, had been longing to see since dawn.

Not that he'd ever be prepared to admit as much to anyone else, for they'd surely declare him mad.

It was a prisoner Harry had been keeping his eye on, as well as vehemently defending whenever the circumstances called for it lately, which was rather often, considering this prisoner's identity.

Tom Riddle.

Entirely by chance, he'd been discovered in the Forbidden Forest, bearing no wand and seemingly with no recollection of how he'd wound up there.

His story had sounded incredulous at the time, but had soon been proven accurate under Veritaserum.

Everyone agreed that even someone like him wouldn't be able to circumvent the potion's effects, and certainly not on ten separate occasions, but nonetheless, most people still remained unconvinced of his innocence.

'How could someone like him be anything but guilty?' appeared to be the general consensus, and though understandable from an emotional point of view, it was also quite unfair.

Harry gingerly made his way down the stairs, and knocked at the heavy, solid oak door of the dungeon room.

He was relieved that Tom finally had a room at his disposal, one with an adjoining bathroom, and that the young man was no longer being held in some tiny, dingy cell.

The Ministry Officials had treated him horribly in the first few weeks. They'd barely fed him and during the course of their interrogations, had threatened to subject him to all kinds of physical and psychological violence imaginable.

They'd hoped to break him, but hadn't succeeded in the end; not even close.

A slight smile tugged at Harry's lips as he considered this. Whether it was Tom Riddle or anyone else, he couldn't help but find it rather amusing, albeit in a twisted, roundabout sense, to see someone get the better of the Ministry.

Hermione had been the first to be extremely appalled at the treatment of Riddle. She'd protested loudly to anyone who would hear, and Harry had soon followed suit, until the Ministry's Interrogation Team had finally eased up on the boy and improved the conditions of his incarceration.

Tom couldn't be more than seventeen in his present incarnation, and he remembered nothing of his past, except the childhood years he'd spent at the orphanage.

The orphanage—

A shiver ran up and down Harry's spine, and not for the first time, a feeling of deep regret settled in his gut as he realized just how similar this boy's life was to his own in some aspects; No loving family, no useful role models, no shoulder to cry on, no one who cared when it mattered the most, and of course, they were both clearly quite gifted, magically.

However, the present Tom didn't have the faintest idea about the latter yet. He hadn't even made any attempts at experimenting with magic.

The wards that had been set up all around the room would have definitely revealed as much.

Harry knocked before entering. It was the polite thing to do.

He didn't understand why he was being so polite, or why it was that he didn't feel any of the vengeful rage that some of the others did.

Perhaps he simply didn't perceive this young man as a threat.

"Yes," a voice called out from the other side of the door. The tone was flat and non-committal.

Harry turned the key and went inside.

Tom Riddle was sitting cross-legged on the bed. His hands were folded in his lap, and there was a paperback novel lying next to him.

It had been Hermione's suggestion to bring him books to read; renowned Muggle classics from Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and a lot of other people Harry (much to Hermione's horror) had never even heard of.

Riddle clearly enjoyed them, if the pace at which he devoured them was anything to go by.

"Um, hi," Harry said, feeling awkward beneath that piercing gaze. He wondered why he'd never noticed before how wide and green Tom's eyes were.

"Harry Potter," came the flat reply, and Harry couldn't tell whether it was a greeting or merely a statement.

"I brought you Christmas dinner," he offered.

"It's Christmas?"

"Yes," Harry said in a soft tone. "Well, Christmas Eve really. Christmas is tomorrow."

Tom smirked at that and Harry wanted to kick himself for saying something so superfluous, ridiculous and plain daft, though it was hardly his fault, he decided. Riddle's presence made him nervous, in more ways than one, and some of the reasons Harry was almost afraid to acknowledge, let alone analyze.

He took a deep breath and lifted the lid off the large plateau to reveal roasted turkey, potatoes, parsnips and other delicious trimmings he'd had Kreacher prepare earlier.

Tom studied the plate, frowned and then gazed back up at Harry. "Were you planning to join me?" he asked.

"Er—" Harry frowned in return. "Any particular reason you ask?"

"That's a lot more than I can eat in one sitting."

"Oh. Er- yeah, it's... quite a lot."

For a few moments, Harry remained there, rooted to the spot, considering his options.

The concept of sharing Christmas dinner with Tom Riddle was strange, outlandish even, but it wasn't as though Harry had any other commitments or even anywhere better to go. Besides, he couldn't deny that something about this young man intrigued him and drew him in.

Perhaps while he was there, he could even try to get some answers for the Order. Then again, he quickly decided wryly, maybe not.

Harry didn't question this young man's innocence any more than Hermione did, and without any hard evidence, the Ministry would have no choice but to release him soon, before Hermione got some human rights' group involved as she'd been threatening to do for a while.

She kept insisting, "He's just a side effect of a Horcrux, a carbon copy, he didn't do anything," and lately even Arthur Weasley cautiously agreed.

"All right," Harry finally said and walked over to the small table on the left side of the room. "Why not?"

At those words, Tom moved to stand as well. The smile he directed at Harry was genuine and grateful. "Why not, indeed?"

Ten days later, Tom Riddle was released by the Ministry and became Harry's guest at 12, Grimmauld Place.

Word has it that he never left.


End file.
